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Insulting or contemptuous action or speech; contemptuous merriment; derision; ridicule. The laughingstock of fortune's mockeries. Spenser.

temperate; to lessen; to allay; to repress; to temper; to qualify; as, to moderate rage, action, desires, etc.; to moderate heat or wind. By its astringent quality, it moderates the relaxing quality of warm water. Arbuthnot. To moderate stiff minds disposed to strive. Spenser.

the sexual relation; purity of thought and manners; due regard for propriety in speech or action. Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. Shak. Modesty piece, a narrow piece of lace worn by women over the bosom. [Obs.] Addison.

ding, pillar, stone, or the like, erected to preserve the remembrance of a person, event, action, etc.; as, the Washington monument; the Bunker Hill monument. Also, a tomb, with memorial inscriptions. On your family's old monument Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites That appertain unto a burial. Shak.…

Manner; style; mode; logical form; musical style; manner of action or being. See Mode which is the preferable form).

Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those intentions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects ri…

or nonconformity to the moral standard or rule; quality of an intention, a character, an action, a principle, or a sentiment, when tried by the standard of right. The morality of an action is founded in the freedom of that principle, by virtue of which it is in the agent's power, having all things ready and requisite…

ect the moral quality of, either for better or worse. Good and bad stars moralize not our actions. Sir T. Browne.

In a manner calculated to serve as the basis of action; according to the usual course of things and human judgment; according to reason and probability. It is morally impossible for an hypocrite to keep himself long upon his guard. L'Estrange.

Any substance, as alum or copperas, which, having a twofold attraction for organic fibers and coloring matter, serves as a bond of union, and thus gives fixity to, or bites in, the dyes.

To destroy the active powers or essential qualities of; to change by chemical action. [Obs.] Chaucer. Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine. Bacon. He mortified pearls in vinegar. Hakewill.

Change in the relative position of the parts of anything; action of a machine with respect to the relative movement of its parts. This is the great wheel to which the clock owes its motion. Dr. H. More.

That which incites to action; anything prompting or exciting to choise, or moving the will; cause; reason; inducement; object. By motive, I mean the whole of that which moves, excites, or invites the mind to volition, whether that be one thing singly, or many things conjunctively. J. Edwards.

To excite to action by the presentation of motives; to rouse by representation, persuasion, or appeal; to influence. Minds desirous of revenge were not moved with gold. Knolles. No female arts his mind could move. Dryden.

Changing place or posture; causing motion or action; as, a moving car, or power.

A gummy or gelatinous substance produced in certain plants by the action of water on the cell wall, as in the seeds of quinces, of flax, etc.

A brown, amorphous, bitter substance having a strong emetic action, extracted from the root of the mudar.

n shaped like a half cylinder, used in furnaces to protect objects heated from the direct action of the fire, as in scorification of ores, cupellation of ore buttons, etc.

t for multiplying or increasing by repetition or accumulation the intensity of a force or action, as heat or electricity. It is particularly used to render such a force or action appreciable or measurable when feeble. See Thermomultiplier.

An opera in which the text and action are not interrupted by set arias, duets, etc., the music being determined throughout by dramatic appropriateness; musical drama of this character, in general. It involves the use of a kind of melodious declamation, the development of leitmotif, great orchestral elaboration, and a f…